Published: July 7, 2025
MONROVIA — The Boakai administration has quietly signed a controversial railway deal with a U.S.-registered firm tied to Chinese state interests — a move that could place Liberia at the center of a high-stakes geopolitical tug-of-war just as President Joseph Nyuma Boakai prepares for a landmark meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.
The deal, inked behind closed doors on Sunday, July 6, involves Ivanhoe Atlantic, a Delaware-based company with ownership links to Chinese state-owned enterprises, and promises to see the rehabilitation and expansion of Liberia’s critical railway corridor from Tokadeh, Nimba County, to the Port of Buchanan. The agreement also includes the construction of new rail links into neighboring Guinea to facilitate the transport of iron ore from Guinean mines through Liberian ports.
Sources within the Executive Mansion who spoke to The Liberian Investigator on condition of anonymity, confirmed the signing, noting that the timing was no coincidence. President Boakai is expected to leave for the United States on Monday, July 8, ahead of a three-day African Leaders Summit hosted by President Trump from July 9–11 at the White House.
But as the Boakai government prepares to position Liberia as a stable U.S. ally, questions are swirling in Washington over whether the deal with Ivanhoe Atlantic could end up advancing Beijing’s mineral ambitions in West Africa — potentially undermining Trump’s “America First” doctrine.
A Deal Wrapped in Silence
Public disclosure of the agreement remains nonexistent in Liberia. There was no press release from the Executive Mansion, no legislative debate, and no formal communication to the public.
A Liberian media outlet, DN News, reported in a Facebook post that they had been invited to attend the signing originally scheduled for Saturday, July 5. However, the ceremony was postponed to Sunday, July 6. When the reporters arrived at the NIC on the new date, they were denied access and informed that media coverage had been revoked due to a last-minute change in protocol.
Insiders suggest the deal was fast-tracked in anticipation of the upcoming summit, with the hope that presenting it as a development success story would curry favor with U.S. officials. However, the deal may instead do the opposite.
The Ivanhoe Equation
Ivanhoe Atlantic is the new face of what was previously known as High Power Exploration (HPX), a company founded by Canadian-American mining magnate Robert Friedland. Friedland is also the founder of Ivanhoe Mines, Ltd., a Toronto-listed company that is partly owned by Chinese state-linked firms.
Ivanhoe Mines’ major shareholders include the Hong Kong-based Zijin Mining Group (12.23%) and Beijing’s China CITIC Bank Corporation (22.33%) — both of which are either state-owned or heavily influenced by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Friedland himself holds a 12.08% stake, while a significant 50.77% of ownership remains undisclosed to the public.
This matters deeply to U.S. interests, especially as China expands its mineral footprint across Africa. In Guinea, Ivanhoe’s affiliate holds iron ore mining rights near the Nimba Mountains, a region critical to the global supply of high-grade iron ore. The new rail link proposed in the July 6 agreement would serve as a transport artery from Guinea to Liberia’s Atlantic coast — effectively turning Liberia into a corridor for foreign resource extraction.
U.S. Backlash Begins
The deal has already triggered alarm bells in Washington with key Republican lawmakers — including Senators Ted Cruz and Jim Risch — have questioned why the State Department, particularly its Bureau of African Affairs, appears to be endorsing projects with companies linked to the CCP.
Sen. Risch, who serves on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has previously blocked U.S. funding for similar ventures in Liberia. In a letter to the State Department, Risch warned of “bogus counter-PRC justifications” used to back projects that could ultimately empower Chinese mining dominance.
“The Embassy admitted to leveraging CPIF’s broad guidelines to fabricate a counter-PRC nexus, and to repurposing the initiative to address unrelated objectives,” Risch wrote, referring to the Countering People’s Republic of China Influence Fund.
Senator Cruz, who chairs the Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, echoed similar concerns. “The CCP is pouring billions into its Belt and Road Initiative across Africa. These projects aren’t just about development, but are tools for influence and control,” he said.
Representative Jared Moskowitz (D-Florida) told The Floridian that America must wake up to China’s playbook in Africa. “It’s buying friends. It’s buying access. And it’s not lifting up African workers — it’s using Chinese labor and locking nations into long-term dependency,” he said.
Strategic Rail, Strategic Risk
The proposed Ivanhoe project includes four major components: expansion of the existing rail corridor from Tokadeh to Buchanan; rehabilitation of the abandoned rail line north to Yekepa; construction of a 2–3 km rail spur to the Guinean border; and expanded port capacity in or near Buchanan.
Liberia’s railway is a strategic national asset — one of only a handful in West Africa with direct port access to the Atlantic. Under current arrangements, the Government of Liberia owns the infrastructure while ArcelorMittal, a longstanding investor, operates it and shares access under multi-user terms.
ArcelorMittal has invested over US$500 million in Liberia since 2005 and employs more than 3,200 Americans across facilities in Ohio, Texas, and Alabama. In 2024 alone, it spent more than $100 million on U.S.-made equipment for its Liberian operations.
ArcelorMittal Liberia is also one of Liberia’s largest private sector employers, directly employing between 3,000 and 3,500 workers, with over 90 percent of them being Liberian nationals. The company also supports thousands of additional jobs indirectly through contractors and local suppliers. Its ongoing Phase II expansion project is expected to create more than 2,000 new jobs, particularly in construction, logistics, and technical fields, as the company moves to triple its iron ore production. In addition to direct employment, ArcelorMittal operates a vocational training academy in Yekepa, Nimba County, where young Liberians receive training in mechanical and electrical engineering, plant operations, and other industrial skills, with many graduates securing long-term employment within the company or related sectors.
“If Ivanhoe takes control, you’re looking at dual-use infrastructure with unclear governance,” warned a logistics consultant with knowledge of the railway system. “It’s not just the steel that moves — it’s influence.”
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